Anyone who knows 5th grade teacher, Emily Litman knows that she loves to travel. We are so pleased to announce that this month she has been awarded a very prestigious fellowship, the IREX Teachers for Global Classrooms, which is administered through the U.S. State Department.
In the fall she will take an online course on global education, and then in February 2016 she will be attending a symposium in Washington DC with about 80 other fellows chosen from schools nationwide. In the Spring of that year she'll be sent to another country - yet to be decided - to meet with educators and students there, learn about their educational system and how they incorporate a global education into their curriculum. Past fellows have been sent to Ghana, Brazil, Morocco, India and Japan.
Emily will also make presentations to students and educators about US education, culture, and daily life and then write a thesis about her experience afterward. Once she returns, Emily will share her knowledge and experiences with other LCCS teachers and students.
"Many people in other countries think of Americans in a very one-dimensional way, and one of the things I'm really looking forward to is the chance to bring a little bit of LCCS to the world, to show people in other countries the incredible diversity we have here in Jersey City," says Emily. "When I come back to LCCS, I can connect them to the world, talk about all the ways we are similar and all the ways we are different."
"With kids, I like to show them that I'm still learning even though I'm a teacher," she says. "Being able to go on trips like this and share my experiences helps my students see that it's important to learn about how other people live and learn around the world."
This trip comes in addition to the trip to Fiji that Emily and Joan Buonafide will take this summer as Fund for Teachers 2015 Fellows. During that trip, they will be studying Fiji's ecosystem, partnering with the Naleba School there, and working with LCCS students via the Internet on science and social studies summer projects.
We are so fortunate to have such incredibly dedicated teachers and we are proud to see them recognized by these organizations for their hard work and progressive teaching.
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